Chicago’s Don Conoscenti is a musician’s musician through-and-through who enjoyed a supportive musical upbringing. While now best known as a decorated singer/songwriter in acoustic circles—he’s a winner of the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriting Competition and was a National Academy of Songwriters’ Acoustic Artist of the Year finalist—fact is the guy cut his teeth by learning drums before learning guitar, and established his acoustic claim after many years spent as a “die-hard rocker.” Never one to be bound by the limits of genre loyalty, Don is also an accomplished flautist and vocalist.

His “few rules” mentality also applies to his approach to the guitar—he’s the only guitarist I’ve ever seen use multiple capos on a guitar, including partial capos. If you’re a guitar player, good luck trying to figure out how to play his songs just by listening to them. For you he released the hilariously titled Capo Abuse and Guitar Techniques video.

Don’s rock’n’roll beginnings have proven a major asset in his ability to stand apart in an ocean of acoustic-driven songwriters. The rockin’ influences in Don’s work aren’t worn on his sleeve, but instead bubble up through the cracks in a much more subtle manner than is typically associated with rock music. So far, he’s nine self-released albums into his career.

On his latest release. High Desert Sessions, Don turned to PreSonus Studio One to make the entire record on his own. Of the experience, he says, “Thanks to recording software like PreSonus’ Studio One Professional, I can now produce, track, orchestrate, mix, master and immediately upload the finished product to Soundcloud and my Nimbit Store, which then allows me to sell it through my website and social media pages within minutes of mastering. It wasn’t easy to learn how to do all that, but there’s a lot to love about the end result of that process. Thanks for listening and look for a summer 2015 release featuring some heavy hitting guest artists including Ellis Paul and Grammy-winning artists Paul Buckmaster, Bill Miller and Lloyd Maines.”

Martinez is a full time FOH audio engineer for Marcos Witt, a well known worship leader and music artist in Latin America. When not working with Witt, Martinez spends his spare time rackin’ up Latin Grammys. He’s collected three in only four years:

We had the chance for an e-mail exchange with Abraham to get some additional details. While Abraham has been using Studio One—and other PreSonus gear—for a couple of years now, this is his first Latin Grammy award for a project mixed in Studio One. Abraham came into the Studio One fold the same way many users do—via PreSonus hardware.

“Back when I recorded more, I used an an M80 preamp and ACP88,” says Martinez. “More recently I’ve used an ADL 600 for tracking vocals and bass. I also use a StudioLive mixer for its audio quality and ease of use for work on our church campus. I have always associated PreSonus with value, but had never considered them a serious DAW developer until I tried Studio One!

“Now I use Studio One for exclusively for all of my mixes in my personal mixing studio, AMmix,” Martinez continues. “We also use it at our church to to record and mix our plays. The main thing that drew me toward Studio One was it’s incredibly intuitive workflow. It felt natural immediately, especially for mixing. I remember having to go back to my old DAW to finish an older project and hating it as it felt primitive in comparison. What kept me working in Studio One however, was its audio quality and professional features. That is something I just wasn’t willing to give up.

“Studio One doesn’t disappoint,” Martinez asserts. “The drum editing and quantization features are the best by far. I love that there are never problems with clicks and pops and everything stays perfectly in phase. Audio quality and ease of use are Studio One’s strengths.

Martinez speaks from experience when comparing Studio One to other DAWs and workflows.

“I found my workflow to be much faster and fluid in Studio One, as apposed to Nuendo, which I worked on before for many years. I recently did a comparison of working completely ‘in the box’ with Studio One against my hybrid hardware/software setup—and I can honestly say that the differences were minimal. I now feel completely comfortable working completely in the box when I have to!”

“I can’t wait to see what Studio One has in store for us in version 3,” he muses.

New Hampshire folkster Tom Rush has been in the game since 1961, and having recently celebrated his 50th year of music-making, it’s not hard to see why the guy has endured so well. He delivers everything a listener could want from an acoustic singer/songwriter—adroit, restrained guitar playing, a voice that quietly compels your attention, sincere, relatable lyrics, and—most importantly—great songs.

Really great songs. An adept humorist with a Harvard English Literature degree, Tom understands critical components that escape lesser songwriters: humor and a great story. Add to that a little bit of melancholy and some surprisingly earthy blues romps, and you’ve got a little something for everybody.

Tom is probably best known for 1968’s “No Regrets,” which has become something of a standard in acoustic circles. This is, of course, only fitting—Tom had a major hand in popularizing the likes of Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, and others, by performing their songs early in his career. Both James Taylor and Garth Brooks cite Tom as a major influence. Furthermore, Rolling Stone went so far as to credit Tom with “ushering in the era of the singer/songwriter. Call it full-circle.

A video of his performance of Steven Walter’s “The Remember Song” went viral in June 2012, causing Tom to comment “I’ve been waiting 45 years to be an overnight sensation, and it’s finally happened!” It’s accrued over six million views at the time of this writing.

Tom Rush’s Nimbit Store has a lot to offer, including a whopping 13 albums, a Blu-Ray, and four DVDs—including a documentary and a guitar instruction course, How I Play (Some of) my Favorite Songs. If you’re new to Tom Rush, start with What I Know. It was voted Folk Album of the Year by The International Folk Alliance.

We’ve got an update to Notion to announce today! You can click here for the full list of changes, but here’s the long and short of it: You can now open exported audio stems from Notion in Studio One, with automatic track names, volume, pan, rehearsal marks, and initial tempo and time signature information. Additionally, we’ve made the usual batch of bug fixes, including SoundCloud uploading and adding instrumental techniques for the new Woodwind and Brass expansion packs to display in the palette.

All you need to do to install the update is launch your existing copy of Notion, and you’ll receive a prompt to download the update. To update from My.PreSonus.com, sign in and click on Notion in the “My Software” category. Next, click “Download Notion 5 Installer.”

We’ve also made a FREE demo of Notion 5.1 available to all via My.PreSonus.com. You don’t need to own a PreSonus product to get the Notion demo, just create an account, sign in, and click the button that reads “Click here to try the Notion 5 Demo!” Enjoy, and tell your friends!

Last but not least, we’ve released a Ukulele expansion for Notion and Progression that is available at our online store by clicking here. The Notion Ukulele was recorded by David Doucet on a Collings soprano ukulele, and includes sample variations for open strings, picked or plucked notes, and both up and down strokes. It’s available standalone or as part of the Acoustic Bundle Pack alongside the Mandolin, Fingerstyle Acoustic Guitar, and Banjo.